U.S. Airline Passengers Increasingly Buy One-Way Tickets Rather than Roundtrips

Michael Sasso, Bloomberg

- Jul 18, 2017 9:40 am

Skift Take

This has been true for awhile. In competitive markets, airline passengers often save money if they buy two one-way tickets. But remember that this can be be a risky move, because cancellation fees tend to be higher with this approach. You’ll have to cancel two tickets, not one.

Travelers are purchasing more one-way flights as the price premium declines compared with round trips, according to Airlines Reporting Corp., which analyzes fare data. One-way jaunts have expanded to 42 percent of air travel so far this year, up from 29 percent three years ago, ARC said.

The price drop is especially pronounced on leisure routes, with corporate travel seeing barely any change. From cities such as New York, Dallas, Denver and Los Angeles, the average premium to some destinations has shrunk to $10 from $125 when looking at each leg of the trip, ARC said.

“The long-held belief that it is better to purchase round-trip tickets whenever possible to get the best fares is simply no longer true,” ARC said.

Photo Credit: Discount carriers like Spirit Airlines prefer to sell one-way fares. For competitive reasons, legacy airlines have generally followed, so it's no longer necessary to buy a roundtrip to get the best deal in many markets. Spirit Airlines